February 14, 2014

Since I was recuperating from a running injury I couldn't attend the Auroville Marathon in Pondicherry which I had been planning from some time. Hence instead of staying at home, sulk over my bad luck and plan for next years marathon I came across this cycling marathon conducted in Bangalore itself. I registered myself at the last moment since I was not sure how this event would be in its first edition. Its usually the case that whenever an event is conducted for the very first time, it would be conducted in the worst possible manner. And I was not wrong with my prediction. Even though I enjoyed the actual event of cycling so called 40kms, but all the logistics accompanying it was poorly planned.

Registered just 5 days prior to the race. There were 4 categories, Passion Ride(40 km), Green Ride (20km) and Fun ride (10km) for amateurs and Champion ride (60km) for professionals who were registered with the Cycling Federation of India. Since the maximum distance I could take part was Passion ride I registered for it. Even before the race day there was a lot of confusion. First an announcement saying that Passion ride will have a cutoff of 90 mins. Now majority of those registered for Passion ride were flabbergasted, since riding at that speed was close to impossible for the majority ie 40 kms in 90 mins with average of 27 km/hr. After a lot of complains in FB they finally changed the cutoff to 105 mins. But the funny part was that the actual circuit was not 40kms as they had advertised, but around 35.5 kms. The next blunder was that they sent a mail to everyone saying that BIB distribution would start at the venue of Kanteerva stadium from 5th Feb onwards, but when many people landed at the venue they started saying that it would begin from 6th Feb. And all attempts to contact they via email or phone for any queries were greeted with automated messages about a callback soon (which never came back) or the mail being replied 3 days after sending it, making it totally irrelevant. Some people who made it on the right day would be welcomed with a statement that they have run out of timing chips and they can collect it on the race day and when they show up on the race day to collect they were literally shooed away. Hence with this track record the Vodafone organizers managed to piss off a lot of cyclists including me. Luckily I didnt face any problems collecting my BIB and timing chip.

Our Passion ride was the first event on a clear blue Sunday morning of 9th Feb 2014. Hence had to report before the designated flag off time of 6.30 am. Landed at the venue at around 5.50 am and was greeted by huge cycling crowd at the venue. There were close to 1,300 people competing in the Passion ride. But another gross point was that the venue was void of any lighting at this early morning hours. Close to 2k people were struggling to move from place to place and all the lights were turned off... I was like WTF !!!!!... this was the height of incompetence. Anyway at around 6.40am we were let into the road via a very narrow gate. As the count down started everyone started to ring their cycle bell including me, which was music to the ears and sounded very beautiful. Soon enough we started the race. With the lap being around 4.5km, at any point during the race one would encounter crowd on the road and cannot expect a calm stretch at all. Even then the actual race was quite fun. Weaving in and out of cycle-traffic overtaking slower riders, competing with other riders who can challenge you was quite enjoyable. With this sort of an event one could easily imagine what would a vehicle free city look like, with only cyclists and pedestrians on the road.

The Pros: Best in the country

Since the elevation profile of this route (which starts from Kanteerva Stadium, to Kasturba road, to Chinnaswamy stadium and back to Vittal mallya road) was pretty flat, people were able to maintain good speed which was quite thrilling. And there were 3 very sharp turns in this circuit which people including me were belting with full speed. Ofcourse with this amount of crowd and speed , there were bound to be a lot of accidents happening. Especially with the newbies who had a hard time riding in a crowd. And even though there were lots of ambulances, whenever a rider was injured they were nowhere to be seen even for the first aid. Anyway I finished my ride on a high with a final sprint, with an average of 31kmph which is my best for such a distance(this is after considering the actual distance measured with GPS and confirmed by other riders. If I take 40km distance average is 35kmph :P ) Soon after that the Champion ride with the professionals started and I didn't wait to see the results, but when I saw their videos they were just whooshing by. Overall both the Passion and Champion riders had a decent experience. But participants from the Green Ride and Fun ride where really shortchanged. Instead of the promised 20km and 10 km respectively , they were made to go around the stadium even after paying the required fee. And to add salt to their wounds they even allowed vehicular traffic on the routes which were earlier blocked for the other 2 rides. Therefore these rides had even more accidents due to overcrowding. And to top it all there were no refreshments provided to the participants which is usually provided for such a sporting event.

Anyway as mentioned earlier all the logistics surrounding the event were pathetic, and with all probability I wouldn't compete again next year. And if it falls on the same weekend as the Auroville Marathon, then "No chance at all!!!!" :)

February 8, 2014

"The Winter is Coming !!!!" is one of the most often repeated phrase in the HBO series "Game Of Thrones". And this they have been repeating for the past 3 seasons and still there are no signs of the so called fierce winter on screen. But this fierce winter made an appearance off the screen, over majority of the Northern Hemisphere. Countries like US and Europe were literally freezing with around -20C temperatures thanks to the arctic polar vortex hovering above and on the other hand North India reeling under one of its fiercest winter it has witnessed in the recent times. With such a backdrop we were to undertake our first ever Himalayan Winter trek. With 2 summer Himalayan treks under our belt we were looking for something different this time and winter trek was the obvious answer to that.

Devprayag: Confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi to form THE GANGA

View from Auli

By the afternoon of January 10th 2014, we(shashi, SK, manju, harsha, senthil, vineeth, manju sr, rajkumar and myself) were all set for the trip. Just then got automated calls from the Indigo call center informing that our 5pm Delhi flight was delayed. Our adventure were to begin even before our trip was officially thrown open :P. Since we had already booked our taxis to the airport we went ahead as previously scheduled. Got a mild surprise when the OLA cab arrived with a transgender behind the wheels. First time I came face to face with a transgender making a honest living. Thumbs up to OLA cabs for this initiative.

With Mt. Dronagiri in the Background

A Rustic village home

Reached the airport then started the endless wait for our flight. Later we came to know the comedy of the situation. Eventhough our Delhi flight was in Bangalore airport, our pilot was stuck up in Mumbai airport thanks to the new terminal inauguration by our beloved PM ;). Hence passengers from 2 flights were made to wait endlessly, those from our flight and the ones who were returning back to Mumbai in the same flight in which our pilot was supposed to come to Bangalore :D. People got impatient and they started arguing with the Indigo crew and finally we got our flight ready to fly at 7.30 pm. But this also meant that we were going to miss our connecting 10pm train to Haridwar, which surprisingly was on time :). This phenomenon happened during the entire duration of the trip. The means of transport we would be traveling would always be delayed and the connecting train would always be on time :P.

A Partially frozen stream

Called our Trek The Himalayas organizer (Rakesh Pant) and he organized 2 Innova taxis to take us to Haridwar. This also meant that our economy trip suddenly got upgraded to luxury status :P. To add salt to our wounds the flight journey was bad with cramped seating thanks to 2 loud kids in the row behind us which meant we couldn't sleep nor push back our seats. Anyway reached Delhi airport at around 10.30pm and thankfully it was free of any fog formation yet. Synced up with the taxi drivers and then a very event-less ride to Haridwar. Had dinner enroute at a dhabha at 2am in the night !!!!!! :P

Camp at Chitrakana

Reached Haridwar at 5am much ahead of the train we missed :P. The temperature was dropping at each instance we were moving nearer to the Himalayas. Changed cabs in here, met the other trek mates and then started again the boring day long 250 km drive to Auli, our trek base camp. The routes enroute was damaged to a great extent thanks to the June 2013 Uttarakhand floods. Because of the same Uttarakhand is right now witnessing a very lean tourist season, which is one of the chief contributors to its economy. Even the famous restaurants like the Chotiwalas in Rishikesh were having a handful of tourists in them. Hopefully things would improve soon. One of the vehicles soon developed a snag and without much surprise we were delayed again :P. But thanks to this we were to witness a great view of Chamoli town at night from the highway. Reached Auli close to 9pm and with the help of near full moon we were able to see our first snow capped peak of the trip. Auli was literally freezing and surprisingly Auli was much colder than at any point of the trek, even though we climbed to much higher altitudes in the wilderness. Even with room heaters on and very thick chadars we had a very disturbed sleep.

Camp at Tali

On the morning of Jan 12th we started the trek to Kauri pass. Everyone took a shower, the luxury of which wouldn't be available for the next 4 days. Even though the temperatures at Auli was near freezing and it being projected as a ski resort, it was totally void of any snowfall this season. But on the other hand the views we get from this place of the snow capped peaks are simply awesome, reminiscent of the views we were expected to get during the course of the trek. We drove down to Tapovan from where our trek would begin. The entire trek route was dotted with sun kissed grasslands , rustic villages and with the backdrop of Mt Dronagiri. Further our guide showed us a flat hill which according to legend was from where Hanuman cut the Sanjeevani mountain in order to save Laxman. And becoz of this a village on the foothills of this mountain got really pissed and have not worshiped Hanuman from generations !!!!! :P.

By afternoon we reached the camping spot for the day which was Chitrakana which provided some great views. From here onwards starts the snow fields which were a constant companion for the next 3 days of the trek. After having our lunch we went in search of logs for our bonfire in order to save us from the cold. This activity became unexpectedly thrilling when we as a group got a huge dead tree trunk and got it down from the mountain, rolling it downhill and running and jumping along with it :P. Once the bonfire was on we spent time around it playing dumb charades and singing around it. We had a love-hate relationship with these bonfires... too near and it becomes too hot, too far and you will feel terribly cold, hence we had to be at the optimum distance and as expected those spots had the highest demand.Nights were cold, but with 3 people stuffed in each tent and each provided with sleeping bags and thermal inners, it was quite comfortable.

Our Destination Kuari Pass in Sight

The second day we had to travel through the dense Oak forests with snow lying on the ground. Narnia land is what I could think of... truly magical !!!!. This is exactly the reason for coming for a winter trek, where you encounter snow in middle of forests and not just in high altitude grasslands which is the norm in summer. Soon enough everyone were involved in snow fights, making snowman, skiing and what not. But on this day Rajkumar on his first Himalayan trek ran out of steam and had a hard time keeping up. Ironically he was racing ahead along with the mules the previous day and pretty much was abusing us for not keeping up the speed :D. Finally we reached our camp site name Tali top which would be our camp site for the next 2 days. It was in the midst of a heavy forest and even-though it was void of any views there was a sense of coziness in this place. Spent the remainder of the day playing some endurance games and without much surprise I fared badly in them :P. The night was even more magical with the moonlight getting reflected from the snow laden forest to give that soft eerie glow :).

@Peak

Sumiteers

The entire duration of the trek we were made to follow the 6-7-8 rule. Getting woken up at 6am with a bed tea, going out to finish our morning work , a simple job which becomes a bit complex with the biting cold :P. Have breakfast at 7, start packing and leave the campsite at 8. On the third day was when we would summit the Kauri Pass (at 13990 ft above sea level). With Rajkumar completely steamed out he decided to return back to Auli. With 4 layers of clothing to protect we started the ascent with the initial section being via forest and then via bugyals ie open grasslands where one would get some great views of the snow clad mountains. But at some sections it was snowed out to such an extent that there was nearly 2 ft of snow for us to wade through, hence making the climb making somewhat an effort with all that resistance. At some places there would a layer of ice formed on the path instead of snow and these were the most dangerous sections where one would get no such grip from their shoes. Slowly we neared our destination along with the Indiahikes team who where on an exploratory trek to this place. We crossed the spot which is known generally as the Kuari Pass and moved further to the actual Kuari Pass. But just as we were nearing the pass, we saw that a concrete bridge build by the authorities to cross a steep section had been destroyed by an avalanche. And any alternate route was totally iced out making it a dangerous affair without any cramp-ons. Hence we decided to climb a peak which was next to the Kuari pass and supposedly 100ft taller than the pass.

We retraced our path a bit and then started the final assault to our destination. The view from the top was simply great. We even went topless in the biting cold to celebrate, a tradition we started during the Goechala Trek days :P. Except for Rajkumar, the remaining 8 of us managed to reach the top. After spending close to half an hour we started the descent back. But during this an old running knee injury raised its ugly head out of nowhere. So the return back to the camp was a bit painful with my knee pain making it a bit uncomfortable. Reached the camp exhausted with almost 7 hrs of trek and were greeted with hot onion pakoras and steaming tea. These small luxuries at the right time make life all the more enjoyable :P. Since majority of us were tired we were soon off to bed after our dinner. It pretty much snowed all night. But one weird thing about snowfall is that when it snows the temperature would be way above the freezing point, but the moment it stops the temperature drops drastically below the freezing point. Something new I learned about weather :P.

Walking over a frozen lake

Dangerous Section: Narrow Path, Steep Drop, Iced out slippery track

The next day was the last day of the trek. With just 4 days of actual trekking this is our shortest Himalayan trek. We were to return to Auli via a different route through Gorson Bugyal. Even though it was d last day of trekking it was packed with adventure. First crossing of a frozen lake, then walking through narrow ledges with steep drops and slippery icy surfaces, then crossing very deep snowed out areas and finally the violent snow-fight with the fellow trek mates :P. For the first time we got the view of Mt. Nanda Devi, India's tallest peak entirely within its boundary and second overall after Mt. Kanchenjunga. Here the snow was of different kind. The top surface would be a layer of brittle and hard ice and when one steps through it, it breaks and sucks ones leg through the soft and powdery snow. Again it was an effort walking through this. As we reached gorson bugyal the snow started to thin out and when we reached the tree line the snow had totally disappeared. Further when we reached Auli, there was no sign of snow in this Ski resort. Reached back to our guest house, had a hot shower, rested a bit, played a bit and pretty much relaxed the remainder of the day. But soon enough we were to encounter Auli's first snowfall of the season. I suppose the snow followed us to Auli :P. It pretty much snowed the entire night. With that I guess the Ski season in Auli is going to open officially.

Mt. Nanda Devi

The next day was again the boring day long journey back to Rishikesh. Just before boarding our cabs, 3 of us (Me, manju, shashi) had some some nasty fall with the slippery ice formation on the roads. I had infact fallen around half a dozen times during this trip :P. Reached Rishikesh by nightfall and booked rooms in Hotel Ganga adjacent to Trek The Himalayas office and also Jumpin Heights office from where we were planning to bungy jump the next day. For dinner we went to the New Chotiwala's which is situated across the Ganges and a subsidiary of the original one. The restaurant was sparsely populated, but we had a great dinner thanks to Shashi and SK for treating us :). Majority of the next day went for bungy jumping. Except for Harsha and Manju SR everyone did it. 5 of us did it in the morning and SK and Senthil did it in the afternoon after seeing our videos :P. The jump location is about 1 hr drive from Rishikesh and they have a shuttle service from their office to the place. More details of the jump here . After the jump we went to the original Chotiwala across the river for our brunch and did some shopping along with it. By 4pm we were all set to catch the train to Jhansi from Haridwar , with 9 of us plus the luggage stuffed into a single auto :P.

Gorson Bugyal

Auli

We reached the station on time, but again our train was delayed. Finally it arrived almost 4 hrs late and overnight it managed a delay of 6 hrs behind schedule. Now we were really tensed up, since we had to catch our train to Bangalore from Jhansi and the time difference between the two trains were exactly 6 hrs. Thankfully the second train got delayed by 10 mins and we were able to catch it. We thanked our lucky stars since it would have been a real headache if we missed our train back to Bangalore. The next 32 hrs we spent watching movies, playing cards in endless loop and catching up on sleep. Reached back to Bangalore on 19th Jan at around 8pm. Shared a taxi back to our homes.

Since we started our Himalayan affair in 2010 we have made sure we had an regular yearly visit, except for the year 2013. Hence the first thing we did in 2014 was to restart our "pilgrimage". Of all the places I have visited so far I have not found any place more serene and majestic than the Himalayas. Its like an addiction and something which pulls us year on year to conquer more and more peaks, trails and passes. With this being my 4th Himalayan trip, I still havnt had enough of these mountains......... पिक्चर अभी बहुत बहकी है मेरे दोस्त !!!!! :)